Nagare to lead Japan at ARC

TOKYO (April 10) – Uncapped scrumhalf Yutaka Nagare will lead Japan at the Asia Rugby Championship, head coach Jamie Joseph announced Monday.

Nagare will skipper a 37-man squad that contains 16 uncapped players at the tournament that sees the Brave Blossoms play South Korea and Hong Kong on a home-and-away basis.

“It’s a big squad because some of the players are currently injured or reconditioning after a big work load with the Sunwolves starting straight after the Top League,” Joseph said.

Nagare has recently been part of the National Development Squad and Joseph said the leadership he and prop Shintaro Ishihara (the squad’s vice captain) had shown during the camp had resulted in the uncapped duo being honoured with leadership roles.

The duo have a number of experienced players to help them out including Akihito Yamada, Kotaro Yatabe, Kazuhiko Usami and Keisuke Uchida – who led Japan in last year’s ARC.

The squad contains a mix of non-travelling members of the Sunwolves, the Junior Japan side that came second in the World Rugby Pacific Challenge and players who impressed during the recent Top League season.

“We want to continue the development of Japanese rugby,” said Joseph. “The results so far speak for themselves. We had one win in the November tests and the Sunwolves have had one so it suggests we haven’t quite got the right players yet. With the Sunwolves, the Pacific Challenge and the ARC we can observe three teams and pick the best players for the June tests (against Romania and Ireland) when we will have one eye on the now and one eye on preparing for 2019.”

Hooker Kosuke Horikoshi, who led Junior Japan in the Pacific tournament is one of five students included in the squad, while flyhalf Takuya Yamasawa also gets a call-up following his impressive debut season in the Top League.

“We have to make sure we always have the next wave of players coming through,” Joseph said.

As to the type of rugby he wanted his side to play, the former All Black and Japan international said. “I want us to play attacking rugby. Playing conservatively won’t help us in the future.”

Japan open their ARC campaign in Incheon, South Korea on April 22 before returning home to play the Koreans and Hong Kong in Tokyo on April 29 and May 6, respectively. They wrap up the Asian tournament in Hong Kong on May 13.

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